THE MACKEREL. 
THE MACKEREL AND ITS ALLIES. 
A reef of level rock runs out to sea, 
And you may lie on it and look sheer down 
Just where the ‘ Grace of Sunderland ’ was lost, 
And see the elastic banners of the dulse 
Rock softly, and the orange star-fish creep 
Across the laver, and the Mackerel shoot 
Over and under it, like silver boats 
Turning at will, and plying under water. 
Jean Ingelow, Brothers and a Sermon. 
npHE common Mackerel, Scomber scombrus , is an inhabitant of the 
^ North Atlantic Ocean. On our coast its southern limit is in the 
neighborhood of Cape Hatteras in early spring. The fishing schooners of 
New England find schools of them in this region at some distance from 
the shore, but there is no record of their having been taken in any num¬ 
bers in shoal water south of Long Island. A. W. Simpson states that the 
species has been observed in the sounds about Cape Hatteras in August, 
September and October. R. E. Earll finds evidence that stragglers 
occasionally enter the Chesapeake. Along the coasts of the Middle States 
and of New England Mackerel abound throughout the summer months, 
and are also found in great numbers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where 
in past years fishermen of the United States congregated in great numbers 
to participate in their capture. They are also found on the coast of 
Labrador, though there is no evidence that they ordinarily frequent the 
waters north of the Straits of Belle Isle. 
They appear also at times to have been abundant on the northeastern 
coast of Newfoundland, though their appearance there is quite irregular. 
Mackerel do not occur in Hudson’s Bay nor on the coast of Greenland. 
